Mobile Broadband Connectivity In Oz

Personal Broadband Australia, PBBW, is targeting December for the commercial launch of their iBurst Broadband Wireless Service (BWS). The service uses technology from Arraycom, towers erected by PBBW, and backhaul provided by Telstra to provide a DSL-speed wireless connection (600kb-1Mb/s). PBBW will start to sell the service in December, but eventually plans to wholesale the service through distributors (is it just me, or does that sound like an overly complicated biz model?) The iBurst service will have two target user groups, and prices to match: stationary users will get USB-type modems (and will not be able to roam), while mobile users will get PCMCIA cards (by Kyocera) and will be able to roam from tower to tower wherever there is coverage (originally Sydney). The pricing will be comparable to DSL for stationary uses, and double that for mobile users. Hello! Isn't that the pricing model that Ricochet should have used a few years ago? We think it a great pricing model to try to discriminate between mobile and stationary users, mobile users should - and will - pay a premium. The pricing allows PBBW to effectively compete with cable, DSL, satellite, AND WWAN, cellular, 3G, and WiFi. PBBW investors include ArrayComm, Mitsubishi, and Kyocera.

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